


Fishing Buddies

by trascendenza



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Character of Color, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-08-06
Updated: 2008-08-06
Packaged: 2017-10-05 13:45:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/42369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trascendenza/pseuds/trascendenza
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack tries to teach Teal'c the art of human relaxation. <em>"This is a most inefficient method of capturing fish."</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Fishing Buddies

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this before I saw the canon on their fishing trip, and, in all honesty, I kind of prefer my version, probably because nothing the canon would have given me would have satisfied my BURNING LIKE FIRE NEED to see these two hook up. Ahem.

"Teal'c!" Jack said, jogging down the hall to catch up, slapping his hand on Teal'c's shoulder. "Where you off to, buddy?"

"My quarters." Teal'c said, turning his entire body to face Jack, one eyebrow raised at the hand on his shoulder. "Is there something I can assist you with, O'Neill?"

"Matter of fact," Jack said, smiling his most charming you're-going-to-love-this-idea-just-wait smile. "There is. You and me have a date with a lake in Minnesota, my friend, and I won't hear a word of argument about it."

Teal'c considered, tilting his head. "Very well."

"No, really, the bass get _this big_," Jack said, gesturing with his hands. "And the fresh--" He paused halfway through his demonstration of the impressive and alluring size of the fish. "Wait, say that again?"

"I will accompany you to this lake, O'Neill. For what purpose are we traveling there?"

"Ah," Jack slung his arm around Teal'c's shoulders, patting a hand on his chest. "Now that's where the real fun is going to start."

*

"O'Neill," Teal'c said, turning his head slowly away from the lake to face Jack.

"Yep?" Jack's hat was resting halfway down his face, body slumped like a noodle in his beach chair. It was a miracle of physics that he didn't topple out of it completely.

"This is a most inefficient method of capturing fish."

"No, no, no, you're looking at it all wrong." Jack shifted infinitesimally, waving one hand in an explanatory fashion. "You see, Teal'c, it's all about energy conservation. We sit, conserve our energy, and let the fish come to us." He tipped his hat up, smiling. "Piece of cake."

Teal'c's brow furrowed. "And what if the fish do not come to us?"

Jack shrugged. "That's why we're here for a week. We'll catch something, don't you worry. First day out might be a bust, but by the third day we won't be able to reel 'em in fast enough--"

"You are correct, O'Neill." Teal'c said, tossing his rod aside and standing. "I will catch some fish."

He pulled a good sized pocket knife out and opened it, gripping it in his teeth, and dove in the water before Jack could finish saying, "for crying out loud, Teal'c, that's not how you fish!"

*

Teal'c emerged from the water ten minutes later with a fish in each hand. He looked confused when Jack groaned and slapped a hand on his forehead.

*

"You gotta loosen up a little," Jack said, the next night, as Teal'c crouched close to the fire with intense focus, roasting his marshmallow to exacting brown perfection.

"Did you not say that it must be crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside?"

"Yeah, but--don't you get it? Half the fun is eating the burned ones."

He rotated his marshmallow a degree, roasting another section of it. "I do not understand."

"Teal'c, we're on _vacation._ We're here to _relax._ That means burning a few marshmallows, that means rolling out of bed whenever we feel like it, not putting down the toilet seat or doing laundry or making the bed. It means letting the fish come to us instead of decapitating the poor suckers. It means that out here I'm not your colonel and we're just two buddies out on a fishing trip, you see what I'm saying?"

"Indeed." Teal'c sat back on his heels, pulled his stick to his side, away from the fire. He looked at Jack. "Then these are the activities one engages in to properly relax?"

"I--if you have to ask--" Jack sighed, pulling his burned marshmallow out of the fire. He slipped the charred skin off and tossed it aside, but didn't eat the gooey, white insides. He watched them drip into the dirt. "Don't mind me, Teal'c. You're doing just fine. Go on--" He gestured, "eat, enjoy. We'll fish a little more in the morning."

*

Teal'c stared at the ceiling of their cabin for many hours after the lights were out wondering about the human concept of relaxation. Jack stayed up just as many wondering what the hell it was about Teal'c that was getting under his skin so bad he couldn't freaking _sleep_.

*

The blazing three o'clock sun found the two of them reclining deeply in their beach chairs, rods barely held in their grip, hats pulled nearly down over their noses. Their legs were splayed wide and loose, Teal'c's angled in a perfect imitation of Jack's, and they each had a sweating longneck gripped in their free hand (though Jack was the only one actually drinking).

"This is what I call relaxing," Jack mumbled, yawning widely, contentedly.

"Indeed," Teal'c said, trying out a yawn of his own. It sounded more like a grunt. Jack just smiled.

*

"Have I done well, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked, holding up his s'more for inspection. It was a haphazard construction, chocolate and melted marshmallow oozing all over his fingers; it steamed against the cold of the night.

Jack grinned, slapping him on the back. "Now _that_ is a work of art, Teal'c, and don't you let anyone tell you otherwise."

Teal'c inclined his head. "Thank you, O'Neill. I am indebted to you for your patient instruction in this matter."

"No sweat." Jack shoved half of his own s'more into his mouth, moaning in bliss as he bit into it. "Oh, and Teal'c?" He continued, bits of graham cracker flying out of his mouth.

"Yes?"

He swallowed in a huge gulp, licking the corners of his mouth, capturing every last bit of chocolatey goodness. "Call me Jack."

Teal'c inclined his head again. "It would be my honor, Jack."

A small half-smile flickered over Jack's lips; it passed in mere seconds, forgettable, but even as Jack launched into a captivating and daring tale about the biggest fish he'd ever caught--two feet bigger than anything else they'd find in this lake, or anywhere else, of course--Teal'c did not forget it. He remembered it long after the fire and stories died out.

*

"Now the trick to the pancake is to get the outside nice and brown, and keep the inside nice and fluffy," he flipped the spatula, tossing the pancake in the air. It landed batter side down, sizzling softly.

"Much like the marshmallow," Teal'c observed, his hands clasped at the base of his spine as he watched intensely, leaning over the pan to study the half-cooked pancake with care.

"Yes! Exactly like the marshmallow," Jack ladeled out another grapefruit-sized pancake onto the griddle, "Well, except for the burning part. Can't eat these if they're burned. But they're great with chocolate, and wait, just you _wait_ until you try maple syrup. Bet you didn't have anything like it on Chulak."

"I look forward to it."

The second pancake started to bubble. "Now, Teal'c, see that? That's when you know to turn the little suckers over--"

Teal'c reached around Jack from behind, holding out his hand. "May I?"

Jack blinked. "Oh, uh." He held out the spatula. "Sure."

Teal'c took a step closer, pressing Jack into the stove, near full-body contact. He turned the pancake with slow precision, flipping it with hardly a sound. Then he stepped back once more, setting down the spatula. "Have I done well, Jack?"

Jack made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a cough, fumbling for the spatula and nodding his head one too many times, a little frantic edge to it. "Oh, yeah, that was, yep, that was great. Jaffa Betty Crocker, that's you."

And Jack came up with an answer readily enough when Teal'c asked who Betty Crocker was, and managed to cook the rest of the pancakes to fluffy deliciousness, but if he ignored the fact that he kept his front pressed up against the stovetop for far longer then was necessary, well, whatever. It's not like he was going to waste his time _thinking_ about it.

*

"Have I displeased you in some manner?"

Jack jumped, sending small pebbles scuttling down the hillside. He re-settled into the dirt with a frown. "Christ, Teal'c, you can't just sneak up on me like that."

"I apologize." A beat. "May I join you?"

"It's a free mountain." Jack indicated the rock next to him.

They sat in silence for moments that awkwardly stretched out. They watched the stars wink into light above them as dusk surrendered to true night.

"Look, you didn't displease me, okay?" He said the word "displease" with a roll of his eyes. "I just needed some time alone. Nothing wrong with that." He tossed a pebble down the mountain; the sound of it scattered down into the dark. "Anyway, it's not like you did anything--I'm the one who should know better--well." He threw a handful of pebbles. "Anyway."

"And what is it you are meant to know better than I?"

"Nothing," Jack said too quickly. He scuffed his heel in the dirt, looking fixedly at the sky. "Know better than to think certain things, all right? You're just going to have to take my word on it."

Teal'c stared at him for a long time.

"Very well," he said finally, standing. He walked back to the cabin.

*

The next morning, Jack woke up to find Teal'c reclining on his bed, intently watching him.

"Um," he squinted up at Teal'c, all bleary eyes and confusion. "What are you doing?"

"I believe, Jack," Teal'c said, smiling his very frightening, very toothy smile, "it is now time that I help you to relax."

And then Teal'c kissed him, and what he was doing in Jack's bed became rapidly apparent.

*

"So," Jack said, drawing out the syllable to epic proportions. He was lying flat on his back like he'd been hit by a mack truck, eyes wide. "You know, just for the record. This whole," Jack waved two fingers between their chests, covered in fine sheens of sweat and scratch marks, "whatever we just did. Really bad idea."

Teal'c considered. "Then you do not wish me to initiate such an activity again?"

"Now hang on just a minute," Jack rolled on his side, slipping a leg over Teal'c, "I didn't say _that._"

*

The three o'clock sun on their last day of leave found them on a shore far away from the cabin, a cooler full of food behind them and a sweet breeze blowing off the lake to keep them cool. By this point, Jack had fully melted into his chair, bonelessly sprawled, his rod in one hand and his beer in the other.

Teal'c sat, Kelno'reem style, his rod propped between his ankles. He stared at the lake with a combination of deep concentration and deep stillness; the rise and fall of his chest was barely visible. There was a lit candle in front of him, dancing in the breeze, and a bottle of water next to him. The bucket for the fish they'd caught--none--was behind them.

"Good fishing," Jack mumbled in his half-sleep, a smile tugging at his lips.

"Indeed," Teal'c said, and that was all that needed to be said.


End file.
